March 13 Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down

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Utensil Dispensers – Returning from Spring Break to Boston College, there are a number of things that everybody expects-tanner bodies, warmer weather, stories from your friends about how awesome their service trip was, just to name a few. Then there are those changes that nobody expects. For example, over the break, BC Dining Services changed the utensil dispensers in Lower. While we rarely think about how we obtain our cutlery for our noonday meal in any given day, we must say that we are rather impressed with this change. No longer are all of the eating implements subject to the often grimy and unwashed hands of the average BC student rummaging through the old bins for a fork or knife. Now, we can eat our meals confident that our utensils are clean and sanitary. Also, perhaps this new system will cut down on the theft of utensils, decreasing unnecessary expenditures by the Dining Services and hopefully translating that into lower prices for our exorbitantly priced meal plan … but that’s just wishful thinking.

Ice Cream Cones – Sometimes, it’s the little things in life-you know, somebody holding the door for you when you’re late for class, putting on your favorite sweatshirt while it is still warm from the dryer, getting that last free donut at work-that really makes a day. Well, we think that the bottom of ice cream cones should be on that list. Although it is always sad to reach the end of something as great as an ice cream cone, it’s always nice, upon getting there, to find a mini-cone of chocolate in the tip. It’s as if the world is saying to us, “We know you are sad that you are at the end of this ice cream cone, but look, we put in this little morsel of chocolate to make it all alright. See, it’s all okay.” And that just makes our day sometimes.

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Misplaced Payphones – Have you ever been behind the elevators in Hillside on the first floor? Well, for those of you who haven’t, we will inform you that there-in the 21st century, mind you-a solitary payphone is located, right across from the bathroom. Why is it there, we ask? Setting aside the whole payphone-in-the-21st-century thing, it is a rather odd place for a payphone. After all, who is ever going to find it there? We know that we certainly don’t often go searching for devices with which we can make a call while looking for a restroom. We don’t imagine that many other people do, either. We speculate that somebody accidently lost it there. They could have been removing it (like one would expect to be done with a payphone) and left it in the wall, while they were going to the bathroom. More importantly, though, is the question of why on earth we have a payphone in the 21st century. Really though, why do we? Is there actually a concern that someone might have neither a phone nor access to one such that he or she might phone home? Is it in case someone needs to leave an anonymous tip with BCPD? Is it so that someone can call the local independent student newspaper with some information on deep source? Other than facilitating difficult-to-trace calls with which one might enable the movement of illicit narcotics or, perhaps, engage in the cross-border trafficking of Russian arms, we cannot think of a legitimate purpose for that phone. Really, BC, you should get rid of it.